After UT-Austin signals a Big 12 exit, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick moves to create a Senate panel focused on college sports’ future
The University of Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium in Austin.
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants a new, Texas Senate select committee to study the athletic and economic impacts the University of Texas at Austin's potential departure from the Big 12 athletic conference will have on the state's other universities, he said via Twitter on Monday.
Patrick's announcement came hours after the University of Texas at Austin announced Monday morning that it will not renew its sports media rights contract with the Big 12 that is set to end in 2025, giving the first formal signal that it’s planning to leave the athletics conference.
The university's decision comes after rumors surfaced last week that UT-Austin and the University of Oklahoma would leave the Big 12 and join the Southeastern Conference, which would then include 16 schools.
The move was announced in a joint statement from UT-Austin and Oklahoma.
“Both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how best to position their athletics programs for the future,” the statement read.
Later Monday, Patrick tweeted that he asked state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, to chair what he called the Select Committee on the Future of College Sports in Texas. He said a hearing would take place Aug. 2.
Patrick and Nelson could not immediately be reached for comment late Monday.
If the schools were to leave the Big 12, it would drastically affect the remaining Texas schools that are part of the conference — Texas Christian University, Baylor and Texas Tech.
UT and OU, whose fanbases and history of football success are significantly more substantial than at the other schools, help drive television revenue and interest for the conference and its other teams. Last year, the Big 12 paid more than $37 million each to its members, an amount largely derived from television rights fees.
If the remaining schools in the conference were to stick together after UT and OU leave, they would have a hard time collecting nearly as much money for a future television contract without its top two schools.
Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec said in May that Fox and ESPN had declined offers to extend their contracts past 2025.
“They recognize the importance of our partnership, but there’s just too much uncertainty, and they do have four years to go,” Schovanec told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
The financial impact on the schools could be devastating. Records show that media rights represent the single largest income stream for Texas Tech athletics. Its total athletics revenue during the 2020 fiscal year was $90.4 million, meaning the Big 12 payouts accounted for more than one-third of its total earnings.
That major-conference money helped allow it to limit the amount of money the university transfers into its athletics department to less than $50,000. Public universities outside of major conferences in Texas have been known to funnel millions into their athletics programs to keep the departments afloat. (TCU and Baylor are private schools, and their financial numbers are not public.)
What’s more, playing in a major conference drives fan interest, boosts ticket sales and generally serves as a major marketing function for universities as a whole.
Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a statement that the remaining institutions will work together to position the conference for future success.
“Although our eight members are disappointed with the decisions of these two institutions, we recognize that intercollegiate athletics is experiencing rapid change and will most likely look much different in 2025 than it does currently,” Bowlsby said. “The Big 12 Conference will continue to support our member institutions’ efforts to graduate student-athletes, and compete for Big 12 and NCAA championships. Like many others, we will use the next four years to fully assess what the landscape will look like in 2025 and beyond.”
The idea of the two schools leaving has prompted some pushback in the Texas Legislature, especially among members with ties to Baylor, TCU and Tech.
